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Fox Chase Cancer Center Adds Two International Leaders in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Husband and Wife Team Come from Northwestern University

PHILADELPHIA (September 10, 2004) -- V. Craig Jordan, OBE, PhD, DSc, a pharmacologist known as the "father" of the breast cancer drug tamoxifen, and Monica Morrow, M.D., an internationally recognized breast cancer surgeon, have joined Fox Chase Cancer Center's division of medical science. The husband and wife team has served on the faculty of Northwestern University and Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago since 1993.

Morrow became chairman of surgical oncology at Fox Chase in August-one of just a few women across the nation to chair a surgery department. She holds the Center's G. Willing "Wing" Pepper Chair in Cancer Research.

Jordan will move his laboratory to Fox Chase by January. He has been named vice president and scientific director for the medical science division and holds the new Alfred G. Knudson Jr., MD, PhD, Chair in Cancer Research. Jordan's published studies of tamoxifen and other selective estrogen-receptor modulators-called "designer estrogens"-have made him one of the top 20 most-cited breast cancer researchers over the past decade.

"We are extraordinarily pleased to welcome Dr. Morrow and Dr. Jordan to our faculty," said Fox Chase president Robert C. Young, M.D. "They are among the leading breast cancer researchers in the country. "Dr. Morrow has been an outstanding advocate in the effort to ensure that women receive appropriate, state-of-the-art treatment for breast cancer and she has also worked to expand prevention options for women. Dr. Jordan was a major force in the development of tamoxifen in the 1970s and it has subsequently become a mainstay for treating women with breast cancer."

"Just six years ago, tamoxifen was also shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer by 40 percent among high-risk women," Young continued. "Dr. Morrow was a principal investigator on that prevention trial. This illustrates how Dr. Jordan with his preclinical work and Dr. Morrow with her clinical research work together to accelerate the translation of research from the lab to treatment and prevention."

Monica Morrow, MD

Until her Fox Chase appointment, Morrow served as professor of surgery at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and director of Northwestern Memorial Hospital's clinical breast programs, including the Lynn Sage Comprehensive Breast Center.

In April 2004, the Chicago Sun-Times named Morrow one of the 10 most powerful women in health care in Chicago. She received an inaugural Department of Defense Center of Excellence grant in 1996-one of only three breast cancer center grants the DOD awarded nationally-to focus on increasing access to modern multidisciplinary breast cancer care. In addition, Morrow was Northwestern's co-principal investigator for a National Cancer Institute-funded Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

Morrow was the University of Chicago's principal investigator for the first national breast cancer prevention trial. She held the same position at Northwestern for the ongoing Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR), comparing the effectiveness of the two drugs in preventing breast cancer. Morrow made the move to Fox Chase, she said, because "the opportunity to work with an outstanding group of surgeons, researchers and other clinicians devoted solely to cancer provides a great opportunity for advancing cancer treatment.

"I was also impressed with the leadership Fox Chase has shown in initiating a comprehensive program of cancer prevention research. Advances in genetics make improved prevention strategies a necessity for the future. Fox Chase has made a commitment to continuing its leadership role in cancer and it is exciting to be part of this effort."

Morrow was the first surgeon to serve on the National Cancer Policy Board of the Institute of Medicine, from 1999 to 2002. She is the surgical editor of the standard textbook for professionals, Diseases of the Breast, as well as an author of a book in the popular "Dummies" series called Breast Cancer for Dummies. From 1999 to 2001, she was director of the cancer department of the American College of Surgeons and executive director of the American Joint Committee on Cancer. She has served on the board of directors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and currently is a member of the executive council of the Society of Surgical Oncology.

Throughout the 1990s, Morrow was active in the development of national and international standards of care for breast cancer, serving on committees for the Society of Surgical Oncology, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer and the American Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology among others. In 2000, Morrow co-chaired the joint committees of the American College of Surgeons, American College of Radiology and College of American Pathologists on standards for breast conservation in invasive carcinoma and on standards for breast conservation in ductal carcinoma in situ.

The move to Philadelphia brings Morrow back to her roots. Born in Bucks County, she graduated from Pennsylvania State University and Jefferson Medical College in 1976 as a member of their five-year accelerated medical program. Morrow has received two of Penn State's most prestigious awards, having been named an Alumni Fellow of the Eberly College of Science and a Distinguished Alumnus of the University. She was commencement speaker for the College of Science in 2003.

Morrow served her residency in surgery at the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont in Burlington. After completing a two-year fellowship in surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 1983, she became assistant professor of surgery at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn and also directed the surgical oncology service at Kings County Hospital Medical Center there. In 1988, she moved to the University of Chicago as director of the multidisciplinary breast cancer team and associate professor of surgery until joining the Northwestern faculty in 1993.

V. Craig Jordan, OBE, PhD, DSc

Before joining Fox Chase, Jordan was the Diana, Princess of Wales Professor of Cancer Research, professor of cancer pharmacology and director of the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Research Program at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern. He was principal investigator for the cancer center's SPORE grant for breast cancer. He was also professor of molecular pharmacology and biological chemistry and professor of medicine at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine.

Jordan has been studying the effects of tamoxifen for his entire career. It originally was studied as a contraceptive but turned out to have the opposite effect. Jordan's interest was in this "anti-estrogen" drug's possible effects on breast cancer, known to be promoted by the hormone estrogen in many cases. He was the first scientist to focus attention on tamoxifen's anticancer properties and its ability to prevent breast cancer in laboratory mice. His pioneering work guided the evolution from preclinical lab studies to clinical research on the drug, which for the past 30 years has been an established treatment both for advanced breast cancer and as follow-up, or adjuvant, treatment to prevent patients from developing a cancer in the second breast. More recently, he has been involved in developing a second estrogen-modulating compound, the osteoporosis drug raloxifene, now being tested as a preventive agent for breast cancer.

Jordan's long list of national and international awards includes the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation's 2003 Charles F. Kettering Prize for the most outstanding contribution to cancer treatment, the American Cancer Society's 2002 Medal of Honor for basic research, the 2001 Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research and the first Brinker International Breast Cancer Award for Basic Science from the Susan G. Komen Foundation in 1992. In 2002, Queen Elizabeth II named him an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to international breast cancer research.

In addition, Jordan has been honored by the American Association for Cancer Research, in 1989 and 2002, the British Pharmacological Society, the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the Royal Society of Chemistry and many other professional groups and institutions around the world. He also received the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition's 2001 Pink Ribbon Award for outstanding individuals dedicated to finding a cure for breast cancer.

Born in Texas to an English mother and American father, he grew up in rural England and earned his undergraduate and doctoral degrees in pharmacology at the University of Leeds, completing his Ph.D. in 1972. Although appointed to the faculty at Leeds, Jordan first came to the United States for postdoctoral training. He was a research associate and then a visiting scientist at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology in Shrewsbury, Mass., from 1972 to 1973.

After teaching at Leeds until 1979, he held a one-year appointment at the endocrinology unit at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of Berne in Switzerland and then joined the University of Wisconsin faculty in 1980. For his seminal contributions to the pharmacology of non-steroidal anti-estrogens, Leeds awarded him a doctor of science degree in 1985 and he became a full professor of human oncology and pharmacology at Wisconsin the same year. His roles at Wisconsin included directing the University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center Breast Cancer Program until he joined the Northwestern faculty in 1993.

Fox Chase Cancer Center was founded in 1904 in Philadelphia as the nation's first cancer hospital. In 1974, Fox Chase became one of the first institutions designated as a National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center. Fox Chase conducts basic, clinical, population and translational research; programs of prevention, detection and treatment of cancer; and community outreach. For more information about Fox Chase activities, visit the Center's web site at www.fccc.edu.

Fox Chase Cancer Center, part of the Temple University Health System, is one of the leading cancer research and treatment centers in the United States. Founded in 1904 in Philadelphia as one of the nation’s first cancer hospitals, Fox Chase was also among the first institutions to be designated a National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center in 1974. Fox Chase researchers have won the highest awards in their fields, including two Nobel Prizes. Fox Chase physicians are also routinely recognized in national rankings, and the Center’s nursing program has received the Magnet recognition for excellence four consecutive times. Today, Fox Chase conducts a broad array of nationally competitive basic, translational, and clinical research, with special programs in cancer prevention, detection, survivorship, and community outreach. For more information, call 1-888-FOX CHASE or (1-888-369-2427).

Disclaimer: Temple University Health System (TUHS) neither provides nor controls the provision of health care. All health care is provided by its member organizations or independent health care providers affiliated with TUHS member organizations. Each TUHS member organization is owned and operated pursuant to its governing documents. Temple Health refers to the health, education and research activities carried out by the affiliates of Temple University Health System and by Temple University School of Medicine.